Miss Zoë Armstrong is the illegitimate daughter of the Marquess of Rannoch, whose own story was told in Carlyle’s debut book, My False Heart. Though raised in the family and doted upon by her father and stepmother, Zoë is keenly aware that her birth puts her outside of acceptable society, at least when it comes to marriage. If no man will have her as his wife, well, she’ll use her beauty to break their hearts.

Two men who are impervious to her wiles are Stuart, the Marquess of Mercer, and his younger brother, Robert. They are cousins of sorts to Zoë, and Robin was her childhood playmate. Stuart was always more of a protector to them both, though in recent years his attitude toward Zoë has ranged from distant to disapproving. Then one night at a ball, Zoë finds out that her father is paving the way for her to marry a widowed nobleman. In frustration and despair, she turns to Robin for comfort. What begins as a consoling kiss turns into a more heated exchange, and though both of them quickly realize they don’t want anything of the sort, they are discovered in a compromising position by Stuart and his vicious ex-mistress. Now Robin is honor-bound to offer for Zoë, and she can do nothing but numbly accept.

In order to escape London and let the scandal die down, both families journey to Greythorpe, Mercer’s estate. Robin promptly begins to drink himself into oblivion every night at the local tavern. Zoë doesn’t want the marriage but can’t seem to extricate herself from it without causing further problems. And Stuart must come to terms with his growing feelings for Zoë while dealing with a crisis of his own: his ex-mistress is claiming she is pregnant with his child.  

I thoroughly enjoyed Zoë. Her headstrong attitude is one big defense against the insults of Society, and it’s easy to fathom why she acts as she does. And the girl has a heart – she knows this engagement is bringing nothing but pain to her best friend, Robin, and though it takes her a while, Zoë finally makes the decision to sacrifice her own future to free him. I liked her immensely.

For all that Ms. Carlyle writes some of the finest prose around, there were two things about this story that were hard to get past. First, the resolution is obvious, but it takes forever to get there.  The middle of the book felt about 100 pages too long. Zoë doesn’t want to marry Robin, and Robin doesn’t want to marry Zoë. Stuart might do what every reader hopes he will and just offer for her himself, except he’s waiting to find out if his ex-mistress is really pregnant. This didn’t make much sense, as a child would have made no difference one way or the other – Stuart would raise it, and Zoë tells him flat out it’s what he should do. A possible illegitimate child was not an impediment. So the book takes a meandering path while everyone else gets around to admitting Zoë and Robin are miserable and probably shouldn’t marry. I admitted to a feeling of impatience. Luckily, things picked up toward the end.

The huge secondary cast didn’t help; there are enough cousins, stepfathers, stepmothers, half-siblings, and family friends to confuse anyone, let alone a reader who hasn’t sampled the author’s previous books. 

The other issue was minor, but felt telling. Zoë never calls Stuart by his first name. He’s always “Mercer,” and this had the effect of distancing him, both from Zoë and from the reader. And Stuart is the only one in the book who gets this treatment; with everyone else, Zoë has an easy familiarity. It’s a small point, but it bothered me that the wall of formality never came down. And it really made little sense, given that she’d known him since she was about six years old. It dampened the connection the author was trying to build. I really didn’t feel a lot of chemistry between them.

All in all, Wicked All Day is an entertaining read, and for those who have been following the author’s previous books, it offers the added bonus of providing a glimpse into the lives of a lot of former lead characters. Zoë is pathos overlaid with bravado, and if any heroine deserves a happy ending, it’s her.  

--Cathy Sova